In McKinsey's world, all of life is one of two things: strategy or organization.
The primary goal of management education was, as originally conceived, to impart knowledge that could be applied to a variety of real-world business situations.
Management is, above all, a practice where art, science, and craft meet
At its best, management theory is part of the democratic promise of America. It aims to replace the despotism of the old bosses with the rule of scientific law. It offers economic power to all who have the talent and energy to attain it.
Hierarchy works well in a stable environment.
When I was getting my education, I fell in love with the writings of Peter Drucker. He was my hero. I had a naive belief that when I became a manager, it was going to be like Peter Drucker's books. That is, I was going to be the effective executive. I was going to talk to people about their goals. I was going to help them actualize.
Management is a curious phenomenon. It is generously paid, enormously influential, and significantly devoid of common sense
The common wisdom is that ... managers have to learn to motivate people. Nonsense. Employees bring their own motivation.
The original and brilliant idea of an MBA was the opportunity for students to study the theory and application of business and management principles.
The most important figures for management of any organization are unknown and unknowable.
Managers are already voracious consumers of theory. Every time they make a decision or take action, it's based on some theory that leads them to believe that action will lead to the right result. The problem is, most managers aren't aware of the theories they're using, and they often use the wrong theories for the situation.
Below Every Tangled Hierarchy Lies An Inviolate Level
Everything isn't about synergy.
There's something exhilarating about being in the mountains and talking about management and the future with Peter Drucker.
In order to produce generalist courses, business school professors have been forced to invent subjects called strategy, called organizational behavior and so on.
Specialized management courses are useful but should come well after the complexity of management and business are understood.
On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world.
Disruptive technology is a theory. It says this will happen and this is why; it's a statement of cause and effect. In our teaching we have so exalted the virtues of data-driven decision making that in many ways we condemn managers only to be able to take action after the data is clear and the game is over. In many ways a good theory is more accurate than data. It allows you to see into the future more clearly.
I have always admired the Linking Pin theory of management specialist Rensis Likert. It says that in every organization there are leaders who link the lower level to the upper level. What makes somebody an effective link as a leader is that he conveys down everything that above wants and he conveys up everything that below needs.
The first myth of management is that it exists.
I wrote an ITV drama in the 1960s, a satire on management theory that starred Leonard Rossiter. I'm also a poet and have had work in the 'Spectator.'
While a lot of management development books try to teach you a lesson or give you a scenario of what corporate culture and work practices are about, they're theoretical and written in a sermonizing way. Most people don't get past the first chapter, and they just look nice on the bookshelf.
Often they [writers on the study of management] have a point of view based upon intuition and experience. They then offer a cadence of two-paragraph examples carefully selected to "prove" their theory, and then they write "one size fits all" books. The message is, "If you'd do what these companies did, you'd be successful too."
In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence ... in time every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties ... Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.
In the study of management, unfortunately, many writers have been so anxious to articulate a theory in the form of, "If you do this, this will result," that they never go through this careful effort.
